Kitsap County Leaders Lock Down Controversial Plan to Live on Less

Presenting a budget that none of them claim to like, Kitsap County commissioners on Monday night approved a $325.4 million spending plan for 2010.

The $82.8 million general fund budget is $5.7 million leaner than the one adopted for 2009 a year ago, thanks in large part to the lagging economy.

“This is our reality of doing more with less and doing a lot with less as time goes by,” said county Commissioner Charlotte Garrido.

The result is no cost-of-living increases and higher health benefit costs for employees, and the continued closure of the administration and public works buildings on Fridays.

The 39-bed housing unit at the jail is set to be closed and a section for prisoners on work-release will continue to be closed, which means those prisoners will be housed in the main jail, said Susanne Yost of the county’s budget office. That could also mean that society pays when those prisoners lose their jobs, she said.

The short budget could mean layoffs for jail employees, a move that was criticized by jail worker Terry Cousins, even though she doesn’t see her own job on the chopping block. Cousins questioned why there wasn’t more cutting from the top of the salary chain in the budget.

She also facetiously suggested the county make a request of criminals.

“I guess we can ask them to quit committing crime until we have more funding,” she said.

Audrey Graf, whose husband Michael is threatened with the loss of his job come the new year, said the corrections cuts will ripple throughout the county. She said she and her husband won’t be able to afford day care if he loses his jail job, which means that day care workers will have less money to spend, which eventually leads to less funding for the county.

Ric James of Bremerton criticized the commissioners’ decision to keep money out of the veterans assistance fund to help with general fund expenses. The county, following a recommendation of a citizens budget committee, plans to withhold $300,000 from the fund in 2010, for one year only.

“In the history of this country we usually wait until the conflict is over before we throw the veterans under the bus,” he said.

County Commissioner Josh Brown said the fund has twice as much as it will need in 2010 and added that the cuts will mean fewer cuts in corrections. County commissioner Steve Bauer said the commissioners could consider the one-time transfer a loan.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer told the commissioners he understood the difficult economic times. The 2010 budget, however, doesn’t let law enforcement officials do their job “adequately and efficiently.” Response times will be slower, and changes to jail policies could hurt the public.

“I do worry that the wrong person will be on the street and the odds will be against us,” Boyer said.

The commissioners praised their critics, emphasizing they didn’t make any cuts lightly. Garrido said the budget reductions were made across the board in all departments, with all department heads contributing creative ideas for how to trim without critically damaging service.

For the time being, she said, that kind of creativity might need to continue.

This story was edited to clarify closures at the county jail facility.